Sergei Bagapsh

Sergei Bagapsh (4 March 1949-29 May 2011) was Prime Minister of Abkhazia from 29 April 1997 to 20 December 1999 (succeeding Gennady Gagulia and preceding Viacheslav Tsugba) and President from 12 February 2005 to 29 May 2011 (succeeding Vladislav Ardzinba and preceding Alexander Ankvab).

Biography
Sergei Bagapsh was born in Sukhumi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union in 1949, and he worked as the head of a state farm, for the Abkhazian regional committee of Komsomol, and then as Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the Ochamchira district. After the fall of communism, he became a businessman and representative of the Abkhazian government in Moscow, and he served as Prime Minister of Abkhazia from 1997 to 1999. He returned to the private sector before going on to serve as President from 2005 to 2011, leading the country during the Russo-Georgian War. He died from complications of surgery related to cancer growths in 2011.